In the wake of the awful tragedy that unfolded last Friday in Newtown, Ct., chart-topping pop band OneRepublic have announced a fundraising drive to aid the victims’ surviving relatives.

“After tragedies like this, there are all kinds of things people want to do,” explained frontman Ryan Tedder. “We want to help — with prayers, concerts, charities, there’s all these events and productions and things that can take place over the next few months that may or may not come to pass, but the one thing that we can do immediately is donate money to these families.”

To that end, the band put together a rather awesome display of the internet’s crowdfunding power, setting up an IndieGoGo campaign and filming a quick video clip (embedded above) that explains what they’re trying to do. After chipping in $20,000 of their own money, they sat back to watch the donations come in, and they didn’t have to wait long — as E! Online reports, they collected another $15,000 by the time they finished uploading the video.

“A lot of these people won’t be able to go back to work for weeks and weeks and weeks,” Tedder pointed out. “Some of them lost the actual breadwinners of their families; there are funerals to pay for. There are all kinds of medical things — both psychological and physical — that are going to be needing funding. And the last thing that any of them should be worrying about right now is money. …I don’t know of any quicker, more immediate way to help the victims of the Connecticut school shooting than removing any fear of financial obligation or worry whatsoever, so we’d love for you to do your part, and help us in this.”

If you’d like to chip in and add to OneRepublic’s Connecticut School Shooting Victims Fund, you can donate with just a few clicks at this IndieGogo campaign page.

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